Trustees address District 46 split

October 09, 2003|By Tiffany Ray.

BARTLETT — Trustees are looking at how they how they might help a group that wants to split Illinois' second largest school district into smaller parts.

Nancy Tomasek and Kristine Porter of Better Schools for All appealed to the board Tuesday for the second time, asking trustees to lend their political weight to the group's effort to break up Elgin-based District U-46.

Trustees agreed to consider hiring consultants to identify legal issues involved in a breakup and asked staff members to prepare a proposal. The board also pledged to provide information and advice from its staff.

Better Schools for All mobilized early this year in response to the district's financial troubles, which resulted in $40 million in budget cuts, larger class sizes and the elimination of nearly 600 teaching positions. Bartlett is one of 11 communities served by the district and the only one wholly within its boundaries. The district has more than 40,000 students, second only to Chicago.

Tomasek and Porter approached the Bartlett board in August with the signatures of more than 3,100 supporters and research that they say shows smaller districts academically outperform larger ones.

Though Bartlett schools often rank near the top in U-46, comparable schools in nearby districts consistently outperform them, Tomasek said.

"Our kids don't know as much as neighboring districts, and it's such a disservice to them," she said.

The blame, she said, falls not on the teachers but on the layers of bureaucracy and a disconnection between large districts and the parents and communities they serve.

The group has held informational meetings to get support from residents in other district communities and will meet again on Nov. 1 in Streamwood.

They hope to meet with state Education Supt. Robert Schiller in November. A meeting date has not been set.

Several years ago Bartlett spent about $250,000 on a multiyear study of the costs and benefits of breaking away from U-46 and creating a separate district for Bartlett and parts of surrounding communities. But officials dropped the idea after an advisory referendum showed residents did not favor it.

Village President Catherine Melchert and other officials said they were willing to revisit the issue.